Friend Died In August Crash In Farmington

HARTFORD — A Glastonbury man was arraigned in Superior Court on Wednesday on manslaughter charges stemming from a drunken-driving crash that killed his friend and injured the friend's daughter in Farmington.

Charles Covington, 23, of Foote Road was arrested Nov. 17 on a series of charges including first-degree manslaughter, second-degree assault with a motor vehicle and operating while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

An investigation by a regional traffic team, the North Central Accident Reconstruction Squad, showed that Covington sped into a tree on a dirt road behind commercial property at 1371 Farmington Ave. He had been drinking rum and cola before the crash, which killed Michael McCallum, 40, of Farmington, police said.

According to the warrant, the crash happened shortly before 6 p.m. Aug. 12. Covington was driving a 2002 Subaru Impreza with Lockery in the front passenger seat and McCallum in the right rear passenger seat.

Everyone in the car had a seatbelt on at the time of the crash, police said.

A second car had been driving behind the Subaru, but the two operators were not racing, the occupants told police.

"No, we were just having fun," Covington told police at the scene.

Covington told investigators that he had been drinking Captain Morgan rum and mixing it with Pepsi. He didn't know how much he'd had, but police found in the car a 1.75-liter bottle of rum that was 1/3 full. They also found several empty 12-ounce cans of Busch beer, an open 30-pack of Busch beer and a six-pack of empty bottles of Mike's Hard Lemonade.

The driver of the second car told police that he and another teen-ager went to McCallum's property by the Farmington River to swim, the warrant states. McCallum and Covington, his friend, arrived later and the group swam and drank for a few hours, it states. Lockery came down, too, they said.

The group decided to go to the warehouse on the McCallum family property and shoot some pool, Covington told police. Lockery got in to the Subaru with Covington and her father.

Covington "suddenly gunned the engine and took off down the dirt road," she told police. Her father told him to slow down, she said.

She said Covington hit the brakes but they weren't working and they crashed into a large tree.

She suffered from a fractured right clavicle, a fractured right hand, a sprained back, a sprained left foot, bruised hips, bruising to her collar bone, chipped teeth and cuts to her chin and back, police said.

McCallum — who Covington said was his "best friend" — suffered from chest trauma, including a torn aorta, from the seatbelt.

Investigators found no evidence that Covington had tried to brake, nor did they find evidence that the car's brakes had not been working.